Several interesting pieces of research were published this week. Oracle NetSuite discovered that entrepreneurialism is alive and well in the UK. It revealed research findings in the “State of Entrepreneurship Report: How Founders Are Adapting and Succeeding”.
Other companies publishing research this week included Automation Anywhere, Cezanne, Experian, IRIS Software, Qualtrics and UKG. CIPHR also produced a piece of fun research into the pronunciation of brand names; see below and take the quiz.
Automation Anywhere
Automation Anywhere has published its third edition of the Global RPA industry Report. It indicates that organisations are looking to intelligent automation to help them survive the potential looming recession. More than 90% of the 1,000 global organisations responding to the survey said that automation addresses the impact of supply chain and economic uncertainty.
Other key findings include:
- 77% of respondents said they’ve made automation a priority for the next 12 months as it has already achieved an average return on investment of 6.3X
- 94% of respondents state automation is helping address supply chain issues
- 61% of respondents strongly agree that automation has helped address staffing shortages
- 70% of companies state that 30% of their work across business functions can be automated
Mihir Shukla, CEO and Co-Founder of Automation Anywhere, commented: “We’re seeing things we never thought we would experience in our lifetime – and that’s forcing companies to rapidly adapt and understand how to remain agile for unexpected events and scale their automaton strategies amid ongoing disruptions.
“Our third Automation Now & Next Report revealed that intelligent automation is the prevailing technology that is proving to be the most crucial asset for businesses in every sector across the globe. As a result, organizations are dramatically increasing budgets to support new automation initiatives.”
Cezanne
Cezanne has published the findings of a survey that looked at onboarding in the UK and Ireland. It found that more than 2/3 of respondents found onboarding stressful, with 1/5 believing they were misled during the selection process. Other key findings include:
- Over a quarter of remote workers surveyed said they’d been let down by poor onboarding
- Only half of all new hires said they felt productive and capable of doing their jobs
- Over a fifth of new hires said their onboarding made them question their choice of jobs
- 20% of new employees felt they’d been left isolated or alone during their onboarding
- Less than 40% of new hires in larger organisations had the tools needed to start their roles right away.
Paul Bauer, Cezanne HR’s Head of Content, commented, “Onboarding new employees is an organisation’s opportunity to make that vital first good impression. A positive experience can lead to reduced turnover, higher staff engagement, and improved productivity – amongst other things. Yet, our survey has discovered that good onboarding practices aren’t as widespread as they should be, and this should be of real concern to HR teams.”
New hires will be eager to get started and make their own good impression. They can’t do that though, if they don’t have the equipment, access or workspace to do it! Bauer continued, “If a new hire feels isolated, forgotten, or unsupported, it can dramatically reduce their long-term chance of success with their new employer. It’s imperative that HR looks to address and prevent these types of issues when welcoming new staff, or they may risk losing the battle for talent.”
CIPHR
During its recent rebrand process, CIPHR (pronounced Sy-fuh) looked at which brands people investigated how to pronounce. It identified the top 40 brands that people searched for with such a query on Google. There were nearly 6 million searches. The top ten were:
- Chipotle (pronounced Chip-oat-lay)
- Shein (Pronounced She-in)
- Nike (Pronounced Ni-key)
- Moët (Pronounced Mo-wet)
- Hermès (pronounced Er-mez)
- Porsche (pronounced Por-shuh)
- L’Occitane (pronounced Lox-ee-tan)
- Adidas (pronounced Ah-dih-dahs)
- Krispy Kreme (pronounced Krisp-ee cream)
- Peugeot (pronounced Puh-jo)
David Richter, director of marketing at Ciphr, says: “Ciphr recently introduced its new look logo as part of a wider brand refresh. One key aspect of this is that our company name, which is pronounced Sy-fuh, is now written in lowercase as one word. Previously, it was an all-caps acronym (CIPHR), which has, admittedly, caused people to stumble over its pronunciation at times over the years.”
CIPHR also created a quiz for those interested and a complete report of the statistics around the research.
Experian
85% of disabled consumers and those with support needs said they had not explained to their bank or building society how they could be better supported when interacting with them. The trend was repeated with credit card (90%) and pension providers (91%).
Where they shared their needs, 70% were satisfied with the extra support required. The main sponsor of the research was Experian, but others included were Lloyds Banking Group, NewDay, HSBC, Co-Operative Bank and Tesco Bank.
The research coincided with the launch of a new open-sourced website, Support List. It was created to recognise the challenges those with additional support needs faced by leading disability and accessibility specialists Dan Holloway and Chris Fitch.
Dan Holloway, Co-convenor of the Futures Thinking Network at The Oxford Research Centre for the Humanities, said: “As disabled people we are used to having to repeat often highly personal, information to every organisation disabled people deal with, just to be able to access services others take for granted. We hope that this project will help break the cycle of exhaustion and trauma that has such a disastrous impact on our lives.”
Paul Speirs, Managing Director, Digital Consumer Information, Experian UK&I, commented: “I am proud that Experian has played a role in supporting the creation of the Support List resource over the past year. We hope the website will act as a catalyst for knocking down barriers that are faced by disabled and vulnerable people every day.”
IRIS Software
UK organisations are failing their employees when it comes to their career growth. 47% cannot see a clear path ahead. 85% believe their line managers and HR teams hinder their growth due to a lack of support.
With talent in short supply, organisations need to consider their approach. Notably, 74% of UK workers believe they are more productive if they feel connected to their company and colleagues. The research, carried out by YouGov and commissioned by IRIS Software as it looks to promote Staffology By IRIS, a powerful cloud-based HR and integrated payroll solution for small businesses.
Stephanie Kelly, Chief People Officer at IRIS, commented, “There is no question that employees are in the driving seat at the moment. They are frustrated over the years they lost as a result of the pandemic and are excited to catch up with their career growth.
“Not only is it evident that there is sometimes a lack of transparency between managers and their teams over career goals, but it’s clear that current HR tools and systems are not built to best manage and support employee progression. Workers today want purpose and meaning from their work and a clear timeline of what’s next for them in the workplace – and rightly so. For employers, there’s nowhere to hide.
“With a flood of exciting new technology entering the market, designed to help attract, retain, empower and delight the best talent, it is essential businesses utilise tools that supports their teams’ growth. Only then can they build aspirational career plans that are helpful to both their staff and the business.”
Qualtrics
Research by Qualtrics has confirmed the executives are confident about growth, despite economic concerns.
Key highlights include
- 83% of executives expect revenue to increase in the next 12 months
- 92% of C-level executives are concerned about inflation or a recession
- 56% of leaders say the business effects of COVID will continue beyond the end of 2022
Looking to the future
- 73% of C-suite leaders plan to increase cybersecurity spending (up 6% from 2021)
- 73% of C-suite leaders are planning to increase spending on technology modernization. (up 1% from 2021)
- 72% of executives plan to increase spending on staffing and retaining their workforce (up 10% from 2021)
Qualtrics CEO Zig Serafin commented: “During downturns, organizations have to focus intensely on what’s most important. Amid inflation and tough decisions about spending, the best leaders create a competitive advantage in understanding and swiftly acting on the needs, preferences, and interests of their customers and employees.”
UKG
The UKG workforce Activity report for June indicated that the US labour market is strong as summer starts. The total number of shifts worked by people at US businesses increased 0.8% over May. Retail, hospitality, and food service increased 2.9% from last month. Healthcare continued to decline, though (down 0.9% since May).
Dave Gilbertson, vice president, UKG, commented: “June’s increase in workforce activity makes it unlikely we’ll see a downside surprise in the next employment report. We saw slight, though broad-based, workforce gains across sectors with retailers showing particular signs of strength to kick off the summer hiring season.
“We also observed synchronous growth across all U.S. regions, for only the second time in the past 12 months, and ultimately expect a slight increase in job gains compared to May. It’s also worth mentioning the progress we’re seeing in organizations recognizing Juneteenth.
“For the first time, it caused a noticeable downswing in workforce activity as more organizations formally recognized the holiday. For comparison, Juneteenth is nearing one-third the size of Presidents’ Day in terms of the number of employees given the day off to observe it.”
